New ‘HIP Reform Group’ formed to support HIPs

It does not take an economist to predict what the likely affect this will have on what is already a very fragile market.

Not only a concern for the consumer, this should also set off alarm bells with estate agents and other property professionals as what will this mean for those looking to formulate and agree business plans for the first 2 quarters of next year.

Added to this is the personal tragedy this will bring to the 30,000 plus working within the HIP industry. At a time when unemployment is high the overnight closure of a major industry must be a concern for any Government.

This does not only concern HIP providers. Home Inspectors and DEA’s who are so crucial to the current HIP, and in helping to reduce carbon emissions, could also find themselves surplus to requirement. These are people who have invested personally and financially in finding a role within an industry that the Government itself encouraged.

In recognition of this strength of feeling, and wishing to see reform brought in on the back of the HIP, a new group of likeminded people has been formed under the title of the ‘HIP Reform Group’. The aim of this group is to ensure the consumer is given a full and not a partial picture of the benefits of the HIP, as well as advocating reform to what is recognised by many as an antiquated home selling and buying process.

I wonder who this was written by?! No surprises there really….
Look folks, the Conservatives have said, for day one, that they didn’t and wouldn’t endorse further red tape in the house selling process. Further, they have always said that they would scrap HIP’s when they got into power. So to all those who perhaps face a “personal tragedy”, you only have yourselves to blame – you must have realised that this problem you face would arise. However, the best will survive on EPC reporting. With regards to Agents facing a meltdown market with a looming election, I agree that the market is likely to soften. But it’ll be nothing to do with HIP’s…

Thank God for an MP with a backbone who is not going to be frightened by an article written by a parasitic industry about to breathe its last. HIPs add nothing, take hard earned cash and generally confuse the market. Carbon footprint reduction, please! Dear God how much deadly (sic) carbon is being produced by all the paper, ink, petrol and cars being used to produce something no one wants, reads or cares about. That said I suppose similar articles were written about bear baters, dog fighters and Freak Show organisers. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

It is universally accepted among those who know the housing market, that the housing crash did not begin with the credit crunch, but with the introduction of HIPs.

HIPs add NOTHING of value to the information already accessible and collected as part of the home-buying process. But, in an already shakey market, they do persuade those who are unsure of the certainty of selling their poperty, not to go ahead because they face an up-front cost.

The housing crash destroyed the feelgood factor more than any other event of the past two turbulent years, and this was a primary cause of the recession we are now in. That recession has cost around 1 million jobs to date – rather more than the 30,000 this self-publicist is bellyaching about.

Socialist administrations are all about job creation. It makes them look good by reducing the unemployment figures, and replaces obvious state earnings support with less obvious funding taken from your pocket and mine. That (and the opportunity to increase tax revenues) was what drove HIPs. They were never anything to do with improving the selling/buying process. That’s why we need to scrap them.

Those who chose to give up other work, or to augment their existing earnings, by becoming HIPs inspectors only have themselves to blame. Nobody should earn a living from society unless they give real value back to that society. So I am afraid you all need to start looking for REAL jobs, and make a REAL contribution – like the rest of us.

I have now brought this web site to the attention of Grant Shapps. I am sure he will be interested to read this debate, and I hope it will reinforce his view that HIPs are another Labour quango that is ripe for demolition after May 2010.

As I director of a leading HIP provider, I agree with the comment above ” HIPs were never anything to do with improving the selling/buying process “. That being said, the home buying process does need improving ! I hope the Conservatives do not give up on looking at ways on improving the process. It is imperative that what ever they do, they get they “buy in” from all stakeholders.